The Senate Education Committee met Thursday, May 16, to hold what is expected to be its last meeting to consider new legislation. The committee will continue to hold formal meetings as necessary for the sole purpose of voting out bills that have already been heard. Members heard testimony on the following bills:

• HB 961, which would require that school districts and charters that employ a school nurse place the nurse on the concussion oversight team upon the nurse's request. Nurses on these teams must then take a concussions training course every two years to be on the team.
• HB 2778, which would update the local bracket to a joint election agreement in Rep. Tracy King's (D-Batesville) district regarding election expenses.
• HB 2818, which would remove the requirement that an online dropout recovery program establish satisfactory requirements for monthly progress. The bill states that online dropout recovery programs are not subject to minutes of instructions and calculations of average daily attendance (ADA) and would create new requirements for how ADA will be calculated.
• HB 3012, which would require that school districts provide students an alternative means of instruction for the classes the student misses while in in-school suspension (ISS) or out-of-school suspension (OSS). The bill states that at least one option should not require the use of the internet. The committee substitute for this bill reduces this requirement to apply only to core courses.
• HB 3650, which would require the district and institution of higher education to consider the use of free or low-cost open educational resources in courses offered under an agreement to provide a dual credit program to high school students.
• HB 496, which would require school districts and charters to develop and implement a bleeding control kit program. The version passed by the House incorporates changes ATPE recommended to strengthen educators' immunity from liability.
• HB 663, which would require the State Board of Education (SBOE) to review and revise the Texas essential knowledge and skills (TEKS) for the foundation curriculum.
• HB 769, which would require a school board to receive approval from the commissioner for any severance payment to a superintendent who has been terminated based on malfeasance. The committee substitute for the bill clarifies the definition of malfeasance and removes retroactive reporting.
• HB 974, which would change the cycle of the safety and security audit to two years from three and require districts to check the ID of a person who is coming to the school for a non-public event. Current law leaves checking IDs for non-public events up to districts.
• HB 1388, which adds indicators of post-secondary readiness to the accountability system. In the student achievement domain, for high school campuses and districts with high school campuses, the bill provides for a measure of students (rather than a percentage of students) who successfully complete an SBOE-approved practicum or internship and students who successfully complete a coherent CTE sequence. ATPE supports this bill.
• HB 1906, which would allow a parent of a student with severe cognitive disabilities to request that the child be exempted from required assessments. This bill was amended on the House floor to add a section on evaluating specialized support campuses. For a campus in which at least 90 percent of students receive special education services, the bill would require the commissioner, in consultation with administrators, teachers, parents, and guardians, by rule to establish accountability guidelines for a specialized support campus in developing an alternative accountability program.
• HB 2184, which would create collaborative policies for improving a student’s transition from an alternative education setting back to the regular classroom. A committee substitute for the bill clarifies that teachers who implement the transition plan are included on the planning committee. ATPE supports this bill.
• HB 2511, which would require campus improvement plans to include goals and methods for bullying prevention and dropout deterrence, including providing teacher continuing education and materials or training for parents. ATPE supports this bill.
• HB 3435, which would establish March 1 as Texas Girls in STEM Day.
• HB 3511, which would create a commission on the Texas workforce of the future. The commission would be established to engage business, state agencies, and local workforce system partners in the efforts of state and local authorities to build the state's workforce talent pipeline, which includes providing data regarding college and career readiness, workforce credentials, and degree programs. The commission would be required to make recommendations to the legislature, including statutory changes, in order to improve alignment between workforce stakeholders and public schools and higher education, expanding the adult high school and industry certification charter school program, and encourage long-term collaboration between public education, higher education, and industry.
• HB 3630, which would prohibit a teacher from using "aversive techniques" on a student with a disability receiving special education services.
• HB 3884, which would transfer duties relating to providing bacterial meningitis information from TEA to the Department of State Health Services. The bill repeals a section of law referring to TEA's duty to consult with the Texas Department of Health in prescribing the content of information given to students and to establish an advisory committee.
• HB 4258, which would transfer bond approval for charter schools to the attorney general and requires approval if the guidelines are met.
• HB 4388, which would require SBOE and the School Land Board (SLB) to share investment information with each other and require SLB to contribute to a newly-created liquid permanent school fund (PSF) account over which the SBOE would have control.

The Senate Education Committee also adopted a committee substitute for HB 3906 today that included the language from the Senate's version of HB 3 that deals with the STAAR test. This includes provisions that would consolidate reading and writing exams in grades four and eight, cap multiple choice questions, and allow the STAAR to be split over multiple days, among others. Chairman Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) explained that this language would be coming out of HB 3, which is currently in a conference committee to work out differences between the House and Senate versions, in order to address the topic in a separate, standalone bill like HB 3906.

The committee also voted to advance the following bills to the full Senate:

• HB 496, which was heard earlier in the day. Sens. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) and Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) voted against the bill.
• HB 548, which would require that districts and charters report through the public education information management system (PEIMS) various truancy information, including students subject to compulsory attendance requirements, children who fail to enroll or fail to attend without an excuse for 10 or more days within a six-month period, etc.
• HB 680, which would require the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to coordinate with the Texas Workforce Commissioner (TWC) on efforts to improve pre-K quality, and assign a PEIMS number to track children under age six enrolled in the commission’s child care program. The bill would allow local workforce development boards to contract with area child care providers to provide subsidized child care services. Sens. Bettencourt, Hall, and Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) voted against the bill.
• HB 769, which was heard earlier in the day.
• HB 961, which was heard earlier in the day.
• HB 1051, which would continue the Excel Goodwill Charter. ATPE supports this bill.
• HB 1131, which would create the “Texas Public Finance Authority” to act as a paying agent under current law for the guarantee and payment of bonds. School districts would also be able to borrow money from the new authority. Sens. Bettencourt, Hall, and Angela Paxton (R-McKinney) voted against the bill. Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas) registered as present, not voting.
• HB 2184, which was heard earlier in the day.
• HB 2210, which states that students who receive residential services in a state hospital will not be considered in the accountability rating of the district or campus that the hospital is located in if their parent does not reside in the district. ATPE supports this bill.
• HB 2778, which was heard earlier in the day.
• HB 3012, which was heard earlier in the day.
• HB 3435, which was heard earlier in the day.
• HB 3511, which was heard earlier in the day. Sen. Hall voted against the bill. Sens. Bettencourt and Hughes registered as present, not voting.
• HB 3630, which was heard earlier in the day.
• HB 3650, which was heard earlier in the day.
• HB 3884, which was heard earlier in the day.
• HB 4205, which would allow repurposed campuses to be operated in partnership with certain nonprofits that have a successful record of operating a campus or charter. This bill was amended on the House floor to include ACE campus turnaround language. ATPE opposes this bill because it would create a statewide campus turnaround plan that includes elements that could tie a teacher's evaluation to student test scores.
• HB 4258, which was heard earlier in the day. Sen. West registered as present, not voting.
• HB 4310, which would require districts to allow teachers sufficient time to teach a given curriculum and states that districts may not penalize a teacher for failing to follow the scope and sequence timeline if the teacher determines that the students need more learning time.
• HB 4388, which was heard earlier in the day.
• HB 663, which was heard earlier in the day.
• HB 3906, which was heard earlier in the day.
• HB 974, which was heard earlier in the day.
• HB 4342, which would change the composition of the board of directors of the Texas School Safety Center to include a professional architect and three rather than two members of the public.
• HB 76, which would allow parents the option of participating in an echocardiogram (ECG) or electrocardiogram (EKG) screening program for any student participating in a University Interscholastic League (UIL) activity that currently requires a physical examination. School districts would be required to provide information about the availability of the tests and would able to partner with a nonprofit to provide the service or could pay for the service themselves. Sens. Bettencourt, Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels), Pat Fallon (R-Prosper), and Hall voted against the bill.